Stephen Canning

Taking the helm of a technology company using a unique combination of philosophical concepts for staff engagement in tandem with modern customer service strategies has driven the success of this business.

The impact of technology on business has been the biggest game changer in our time; there wouldn’t be a business today that doesn’t rely on some form of technology in its day-to-day running.

Every business seminar talks about it, and the most popular success stories centre on how companies like Uber, AirBnB and Amazon have led the change. Uber, a taxi company that doesn’t own a car; AirBnB, an accommodation chain that doesn’t own a bed let alone a hotel; and Amazon, a supermarket with no trolleys.

Stephen Canning, the CEO of JCurve Solutions (ASX: JCS), agrees those companies have had a massive impact on the way business is practised in the twenty-first century, but his take is slightly different. “I think the biggest impact those companies have had is in the area of customer expectations,” he says.

Uber claims your waiting time in Sydney for a ride is just over three minutes, so while they have revolutionised the taxi industry, Stephen believes it’s their customer service which is having a greater impact on the wider business community.

For Stephen, “these days it’s about understanding what’s happening with customer expectations and then exceeding those expectations. Whether you’re a small business or a very large business, customer expectations are constantly evolving.

“Customers are much better informed and are coming into the sales process at a different stage of the journey than they might have done twenty years ago. The world has changed and we have to recognise that and make sure we’re staying abreast of all those changes.”

All is not lost though for businesses feeling the heat in relation to customer expectations. Stephen believes the advantage a business like his has over competitors is his staff.

Importantly for Stephen, “there’s a saying that the customer experience will never exceed the employee experience and I think that is just so true. Employee engagement is very important for us. If your employees are happy and engaged they’re going to deliver that experience over the phone, or in a meeting. If they’re having a bad day, that’s going to come across. So we are really passionate about our employees being happy and engaged.”

It wasn’t always the case though at JCurve Solutions and just how much work needed to be done came as huge shock, once Stephen took over the reins.

Three-and-a-half years ago they rolled out the Gallup Q12 employee engagement survey. “This is a global benchmark which has been going for many years that identifies twelve core elements linked to key business outcomes.”

Stephen recounts, “there are twelve questions Gallup ask to give you an employee engagement score. When we did it and the score came back I asked Gallup if there has been a mistake in our final score. We were in the bottom one-percent, the bottom percentile of organisations globally.”

Stephen candidly says, “we simply couldn’t believe it, but it wasn’t a mistake, our engagement wasn’t good at all on the back of multiple acquisitions, stagnant growth, management changes and the lack of a clear strategic direction.”

Stephen had only been at the company a short while at that time and knew there was work to be done, but believed the company was doing a better job with its employees than the scores showed.

“Having originally come from a software technology background, I was a techie. Once I’d moved into project management, I found my passion in leading teams of people. I’m still passionate about technology and love talking to customers about it and what it can do, but I realised after a few years that wasn’t really where my strengths lay.

“In project management I found I was good at bridging the gap between technology and business. I crossed that divide and discovered I had a passion for it; I stay in touch with technology but my days of writing lines of code are long gone.”

Crossing that divide and leading a team was put to its ultimate test for Stephen when that Gallup Q12 score came in; he had to find a way to boost employee engagement. Being in the bottom percentile was not acceptable.

A common trait amongst successful leaders is their willingness to read, to admit they don’t know it all, and be prepared to take guidance from leaders who have runs on the board. By his own admission Stephen is an avid reader.

Given the tech background, “I read a lot of e-books, but I also enjoy reading hard copies. In fact at night I usually turn-off all my devices to ensure a good night’s sleep and bury my head in a book. I’m a passionate lifelong learner and love reading personal growth books.”

This next confession from Stephen might cause you to place him squarely in the geek corner, but when you comprehend its impact you can understand how he turned around the employee engagement score at JCurve Solutions. “I read a bit of psychology and philosophy; I study the stoic philosophers.”

The central core of stoic philosophy is judgement should be based on behaviour rather than words, it says we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses. For the record, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius were also readers of stoic philosophy, so Stephen Canning is in very good company.

As Stephen says, “they were talking about this two-thousand years ago and it’s still relevant today. My biggest takeaway is you’ve got to understand what’s in your control and the only thing that is truly in your control is your response and reaction to events.”

After getting that initial result from the Gallup Q12 score, Stephen accepted responsibility for the result and took control of improving it. “After that result we sat down as a team to define what we wanted our workplace to be like, what we wanted our culture to be like and the core part of that was our values, so since then we’ve built everything on our foundational values.

“We wanted our values to be meaningful and representative of the behaviours you would see in all our staff. We didn’t want what I call ‘table-stakes’ values. People talk about honesty as a value and it is very important but it’s a ‘table-stake’, you expect everyone to be honest. Excellence is another, we all aspire for that but it’s unrealistic to be excellent all day long.”

Stephen summarises by saying, “we wanted values that highlighted the essence of what it means to work here, what the behaviours represent.”

Those values are on display for all to see as you walk into the offices of JCurve Solutions: There are signs around the office reading ‘Act As One’; ‘Live Above The Line’; and ‘Make It Happen’.

Stephen defines them as follows: “Act as One is about teamwork, but for us it’s more than just saying you’re part of a team: it’s about helping and supporting each other; it’s about speaking with one voice and making sure we’re consistent. It’s about having your colleague’s back so if someone drops the ball you step in and pick it up.

“Living Above The Line refers to that line of choice. It means choosing behaviours that we call above the line, such as acceptance, responsibility and accountability. Below the line behaviours we don’t accept are blame, excuse and denial. It’s about framing everything in a positive way and taking ownership and responsibility.”

And thirdly, “Making it Happen is about ensuring things get done. So it’s about urgency and also acting with discipline. We didn’t want just urgency because then you’ve got chaos and we didn’t want just discipline because of course then you’ve got bureaucracy. It means getting things done and executing them with discipline.”

Stephen adds “we could have had more, but three is an easy number to remember and if you asked anyone in this office what are our three core values everybody would know.”

Stephen says what makes them work is making them real, they’re not just words on the wall. As he details, “what made them real for us was that we all agreed to give each other permission to call each other out if you’re not living these values. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your title is, if I start to make an excuse I expect someone to call me on it. We make it safe for anybody to call anyone else out when they’re not living the values.

“As a leadership group you can’t impose a culture or values. You can set guidelines and paint a picture of what you want your organisation to look like, but when it comes to describing behaviours and what values underpin them, you’ve really got to get the people engaged and that’s the process we went through.”

And there’s no doubt all fifty-five people working at JCS know those three core values because every month someone within the company is honoured for living them.

According to Stephen, “It’s important we recognise their contributions, so every month people nominate their colleagues for having lived the values. It’s not just about doing a good job, it’s having demonstrated the values. We recognise one person each month from the list of nominations. We regularly get twenty to thirty nominations, so the people here take this very seriously.”

The success of the program hit home after just two years when JCS again undertook the Gallup Q12 survey and scored in the eighty-second percentile. “I truly believe it’s become our point of difference. Competitors can sell the same or similar product, they can copy your sales and marketing plan, copy your website and undercut your price. Business is about building a competitive advantage and the only sustainable competitive advantage you can build is one you build through your people.”

It has certainly worked for Stephen and JCS, with the company building a solid customer base and now moving into Asia. This competitive advantage is important given “we help businesses grow by providing a business management solution software through the cloud, helping them become more efficient by removing operational bottlenecks.

“With our emphasis on customer engagement we offer consulting services alongside our software to ensure clients get the most out of their software investment. We understand it’s often a big investment for customers setting up technology to run their operations and for us it’s about having that ongoing relationship with the customer as they continue to grow and evolve their businesses.”

That team cohesion is evident when “our team of account managers works to understand our customers’ businesses and their ongoing needs, our professional services consultants continue to optimise their set up and work with customers to train their staff, and our support staff continue to be responsive and work through issues if and when they come up.

“Yes it’s a technology solution we’re delivering, but it’s all about the overall customer experience and understanding the customer’s business and their needs together with how we can work with them to help them become more efficient and grow.”

Growth has become a key element of JCurve Solutions’ business plan; growth for the company and their staff, but also growth for their customers. The challenge for Stephen and his team is that change comes quickly in the technology industry, and change mightn’t always mean growth.

“To stay ahead,” Stephen comments, “we’re always looking at what’s happening next, where is technology going, and envisaging what the future is going to be and how it’s going to impact our organisation and our customers.”

There’s also a contrasting element as Stephen adds, “we’re trying to understand what’s changing very quickly but also what’s staying the same, because if we’re certain something is to be the same in five years you can build a solid, robust strategy around that. When something is changing very quickly that’s a lot harder.

“You’ve got to understand which category the technology you’re talking about falls into, and there are some areas we operate in where we can see some stability going forward and other areas where we can see a vast amount of change. So it’s working out how we can be involved in that to add value for our customers by helping them find the right solutions for their business.”

ADVICE
If Stephen Canning was starting his career all over again the element on which he’d most concentrate would be those working with and for him.

He freely admits, “I wish I’d known this when I started my career. Success in business is about putting employees first, then customers, then revenue and then profit. I know, it sounds counterintuitive, but I think I first heard Richard Branson talk about it and I think it’s absolutely right.

“If you’ve got the right strategy and you’ve got the discipline, everything will follow through.” As Stephen has repeatedly mentioned, having a happy and engaged workforce where everyone is on the same page and working towards to a common goal has a powerful effect on your customers.

“I’m continually working on encouraging the people I work with because, to be honest leadership doesn’t come naturally for me. I have to make a conscious effort and be aware that leadership is all about doing the basics well and reminding myself that I have to say thank you to people who’ve done an excellent job and to be constantly looking for ways to encourage and inspire people.

“You can’t do it once and then forget, it’s something you have to do daily. I tell my people all the time my title should be Chief Reminding Officer, because my role is reinforcing it and repeating it until I think I’ve said it too many times, then say it again.”

In business, Stephen firmly believes “it’s so important your people understand where you’re going and what’s expected of them.”